KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

26

ACTION

ACTION

remedy claimed to be given by law, to the party complaining. Haley v. Eureka County Bank, 21 Nev. 127, 26 Pac. 64, 12 L. R. A. 815. Classification of actions. Civil actions are such as He in behalf of persons to en force their rights or obtain redress of wrongs in their relation to individuals. Criminal actions are such as are instituted by the sovereign power, for the purpose of punishing or preventing offenses against the public. Penal actions are such as are brought, either by the state or by an individual under permission of a statute, to enforce a penalty imposed by law for the commission of a pro hibited act Common law actions are such as will lie, on the particular facts, at common law, with out the aid of a statute. Statutory actions are such as can only be based upon the particular statutes creating them. Popular actions, in English usage, are those actions which are given upon the breach of a penal statute, and which any man that will may sue on account of the king and himself, as the statute allows and the case requires. Because the action is not given to one especially, but generally to any that will prosecute, it is called "action popular;" and, from the words used in the process, (qui tarn pro domino rege sequitur quam pro se ipso, who sues as well for the king as for himself,) it is called a qui tarn action. Tomlins. Real, personal, mixed. Actions are divid ed into real, personal, and mixed. See INFBA. Local action. An action is so termed when all the principal facts on which it is founded are of a local nature; as where pos session of land is to be recovered, or damages for an actual trespass, or for waste affecting land, because in such case the cause of action relates to some particular locality, which usually also constitutes the venue of the action. Miller v. Rickey (C. C.) 127 Fed. 577; Crook v. Pitcher, 61 Md. 513; Beirne v. Rosser, 26 Grat. (Va.) 541; McLeod v. Rail road Co., 58 Vt 727, 6 Atl. 648; Ackerson v. Erie R, Co., 31 N. J. Law, 311; Texas & P. R. Co. v. Gay, 86 Tex. 571, 26 S. W. 599, 25 L. R. A. 52. Transitory actions are those founded upon a cause of action not necessarily referring to or arising in any particular locality. Actions are called, in common-law practice, ex contractu when they are founded on a contract; ex delicto when they arise out of a tort. Umlauf v. Umlauf, 103 111. 651; Nelson v. Great Northern R. Co., 28 Mont. 297, 72 Pac. 642; Van Oss v. Synon, 85 Wis. 661, 56 N. W. 190. "Action" and "Suit." The terms "ac tion" and "suit" are now nearly, if not en tirely, synonymous. (3 Bl. Comm. 3, 116, et passim.) Or, if there be a distinction, it is that the term "action" is generally confin

ed to proceedings In a court of law, while "suit" is equally applied to prosecutions at law or in equity. White v. Washington School Dist, 45 Conn. 59; Dullard v. Phelan, 83 Iowa, 471, 50 N. W. 204; Lamson v. Hutchings, 118 Fed. 321, 55 C. C. A. 245; Page v. Brewster, 58 N. H. 126; Kennebec Water Dist. v. Waterville, 96 Me. 234, 52 Atl. 774; Miller v. Rapp, 7 Ind. App. 89, 34 N. E. 126; Hall v. Bartlett, 9 Barb. (N. Y.) 297; Branyan v. Kay, 33 S. C. 283, 11 S. E. 970; Niantic Mills Co. v. Riverside & O. Mills, 19 R, I. 34, 31 Atl. 432; Ulshafer v. Stewart, 71 Pa. 170. Formerly, however, there was a more substantial distinction be tween them. An action was considered as terminating with the giving of judgment, and the execution formed no part of it. (Litt. <* 504; Co. Litt. 289a.) A suit, on the other hand, included the execution. (Id. 291a.) So, an action is termed by Lord Coke, "the right of a suit." (2 Inst. 40.) Burrill. — Mixed action. An action partaking of the twofold nature of real and personal actions, hav ing for its object the demand and restitution of real property and also personal damages for a wrong sustained. 3 Bl. Comm. 118; Hall v. Decker, 48 Me. 257. Mixed actions are those which are brought for the specific recovery of lands, like real actions, but comprise, joined with this claim, one for damages in respect of such property; such'as the action of waste, where, in addition to the recovery of the place wasted, the demandant claims damages; the writ of entry, in which, by statute, a demand of mesne profits may be joined; and dower, in which a claim for detention may be included. 48 Me. 255. In the civil law. An action in which some specific thing was demanded, and also some personal obligation claimed to be per formed ; or, in other words, an action which proceeded both in rem and in personam. Inst. 4, 6, 20.— Personal action. In the civil law. An action in personam. A personal action seeks to enforce an obligation imposed on the defend ant by his contract or delict; that is, it is the contention that he is bound to transfer some dominion or to perform some service or to re pair some loss. Gaius, bk. 4, § 2. In common law. An action brought for the recovery of some debt or for damages for some personal in jury, in contradistinction to the old real actions, which related to real property only. See 3 Bl. Comm. 117. Boyd v. Cronan, 71 Me. 286; Doe v. Waterloo Min. Co. (C. C.) 43 Fed. 219; Osborn v. Fall River, 140 Mass. 508, 5 N. E. 483. An action which can be brought only by the person himself who is injured, and not by his representatives.— Ileal action. At the common law. One brought for the specific re covery 'of lands, tenements, or hereditaments. Steph. PI. 3; Crocker v. Black, 16 Mass. 448; Hall v. Decker, 48 Me. 256; Doe v. Waterloo Min. Co., 43 Fed. 220. Among the civilians, real actions, otherwise called "vindications," were those in which a man demanded something that was his own. They were founded on do minion, or jus in re. The real actions of the Roman law were not, like the real actions of the common law, confined to real estate, but they included personal, as well as real, prop erty. Wharton.

In French commercial law.

Stock in a

company, or shares In a corporation. In Scotch law.

A suit or judicial pro

ceeding. — Action for poinding. An action by a creditor to obtain a sequestration of the rents